In retaliation for imposing sanctions, Russia will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites

Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis. Russias deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea...

They can certainly quit giving US astronauts rides on their rockets, but the International Space Station is like 75% US made, so I’m not sure where they have the ability to ban the US from using it once Elon Musk’s Dragon capsules are fully operational. FWIW, NASA has the ability to drop the ISS into the Pacific Ocean any time they want to.

5
posted on 05/14/2014 6:30:04 AM PDT
by ElkGroveDan
(My tagline is in the shop.)

Well, actually GW shut down the shuttle program. But the lyin’ king sure didn’t help with a follow on. Except of course for telling chaz bolden to crank up the muzzie outreach for all the contributions that i-slam made to our tech advances. Lucky the russkies are “letting” us buy engines from them huh?

Not to mention it would really piss of the few allies we have left who have put billions of dollars into it themselves.

That said it does have limited mobility. It was repositioned for the launch of the Soyuz capsule yesterday. It could be nudged into a lower orbit that would speed decay but its pointless anyway because its an idiotic idea.

11
posted on 05/14/2014 6:41:02 AM PDT
by cripplecreek
(Remember the River Raisin.)

Meaningless drivel. Although we are dependent now on the Russians for access to the station, by 2020, we will have some type of domestic transport in place (SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada are all working on vehicles for crew transport to and from ISS). As for the RD-180, we already have about 70 of those stockpiled here in the USA, so there are enough engines for Atlas launches for the foreseeable future.

Why would you doubt that? NASA put it there and NASA maintains its orientation and stability. NASA has full control of every major operation and system aboard it. I doubt they would, but the ability is there.

20
posted on 05/14/2014 7:04:33 AM PDT
by ElkGroveDan
(My tagline is in the shop.)

rktman -True statement about GW terminating the shuttle program. However, the statement sheds a false light on the facts. Just as Kennedy canceled the Mercury and Gemini programs Apollo was almost ready to go. When GW canceled the
Shuttle the belief was that there would be less than a year gap in our ability to launch humans into low earth orbit.
Obama has slow rolled the next launch vehicle. Making Muslims feel better about their accomplishments is more important.

It could be nudged into a lower orbit that would speed decay but its pointless anyway because its an idiotic idea.

The point was not to suggest any action, the point was to emphasize the full and complete control of the ISS held by the U.S. What is idiotic is the rash responses on FR these days by people who only superficially read a post without grasping the full message. So here is my comment again using lots more unnecessary words:

The U.S, has the ability to control nearly every system on the ISS from the ground, they can turn the lights on and off in nearly every compartment they control the environmental settings, heating, cooling, waste treatment everything you could imagine. They control the thrusters for reorienting the entire station for spacecraft access and convenience, and they can move it into higher and lower orbits to avoid known space debris. In the 1970s due to unexpected sunspot activity the first American space station Skylab's orbit started to decay faster than expected and the US had no operational spacecraft - manned or unmanned -- or other ability to boost Skylab in its orbit. As Skylab's orbit decayed there was a great fear that once it burned up larger sections could come down over populated areas and injure or kill people. Ultimately it came down over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia and no one was injured. However to avoid that problem in the future large NASA orbiting facilities including ISS have been launched in recent years with maneuvering thrusters and ample fuel to allow for a controlled reentry if such a thing were ever necessary; i.e dropping it in the Pacific Ocean. Because of all of these abilities at the fingertips of NASA flight controllers it would be foolhardy for the Russians to ever attempt to seize control of the ISS or attempt to ban Americans from using it.

Or... in response to the question of Russian blocking the US I could have emphasized the extent of the control the US has of the station by stating, "NASA has the ability to drop the ISS into the Pacific Ocean any time they want to. Which I did. There was a time on FR when you didn't need to write a couple hundred words to make a simple point.

30
posted on 05/14/2014 7:30:54 AM PDT
by ElkGroveDan
(My tagline is in the shop.)

Talk about a non-event. Anything having to do with the space station is a taxpayer funded boondogle of no value except to the NASA personnel and contractors on the gravy train. The money would have been put to better use by leaving it in the hands of those who earned it.

32
posted on 05/14/2014 7:36:22 AM PDT
by from occupied ga
(Your government is your most dangerous enemy)

One must admit that the building of the ISS was an engineering marvel. I’m not too sure what it is that we are doing with it. Has it been instrumental in any kind of scientific development, important discovery? It might be that it has had some significance in studying long term duration space flight! We built most of it, lots of the Russian contribution was usually late and it’s quality dubious. But now we are over a barrel. So do we just give up?

38
posted on 05/14/2014 8:41:41 AM PDT
by Empireoftheatom48
(God help the Republic but will he?)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.